Cowboys at Saints: Dak Prescott returns to The Bayou State as a '2-star QB'

Cowboys at Saints: Dak Prescott returns to The Bayou State as a '2-star QB'

NEW ORLEANS - La'el Collins and Dak Prescott are both Louisiana kids. And if you are Louisiana football kids, you dream of the state's biggest stages. One of those is LSU, the prestige of which gives Collins something to bust Prescott's chops about.

"Hey, Dak,'' Collins said on Thursday back at The Star in Frisco as the Cowboys prepared for this trip to their home state. "What do those two stars (above your locker) mean?''

Collins, like most in Cowboys Nation, is well-aware that the stars signify Pro Bowl appearances. And yes, in Dak's first three NFL seasons, he's accumulated two stars.

"I think,'' Collins drawled, setting up perfectly his deadpan punchline, "they mean you were a two-star athlete.''

The usually quick-on-his feet Prescott was in the process of cooking up a witty response. Something about that time Dak's Mississippi State team beat La'el's LSU guys, maybe?

""Aw,'' Collins said, putting the Bulldog in his place below the Tiger, "we didn't want you.''

Give the right tackle Collins credit; it's not often -- certainly not in this 3-0 season -- when anybody gets the best of Prescott, who is playing the position of NFL quarterback at pretty much its highest level.

Said Saints coach Sean Payton, rattling off Dak's strengths: "Decision-making. He's beating teams in the pocket and obviously he can escape. I think he's very effective when he's outside the pocket on the move. He's run for touchdowns. You also see a calmness and a really good leader."

Some of that was always part of Dak's game. Back at Haughton High School in Haughton, La. -- a small town that now bears a street sign with his name, he built a local legend he continued at Mississippi State. Among the college highlights for the kid who would become Dallas' fourth-round pick in 2016 and immediate heir to Tony Romo's throne: A Sept. 20, 2014 night game. An undefeated Mississippi State team somehow beat the LSU big boys, 34-29, with Prescott accumulating 373 total yards and three touchdowns. ... And the Bulldogs got to experience a No. 1 ranking.

Dak is putting up big numbers in the NFL now. (And in line to earn a new contract extension when -- no matter the worried bleating of some - both sides agree to it.)

WATCH: #Cowboys #JerryJones strolls Bourbon Street in his ‘second home of New Orleans’ https://t.co/if0xITANcM (pic @heybriandawson pic.twitter.com/8puWzFTLoQ

— fishsports ✭ (@fishsports) September 29, 2019

On the field, Prescott has excelled under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Prescott has thrown for 920 yards and nine touchdowns (plus another touchdown on the ground), and currently leads the NFL in completion percentage (74.5 percent) and Total QBR (94.0) after the season's first three weeks.

And now comes a chance to do it on national TV, in prime time, back in his home state, back in front of some of the folks who followed him coming up. 

Prescott has never played in the Superdome before; his only experience was being cited in a brief pregame ceremony before a Saints game as being a local "high-school athlete of the week.''

Yes, Dak actually was recruited by both Mississippi State and LSU. (LSU was late to the party so he kept his commitment to the Bulldogs.) His roots have spread from Louisiana to Mississippi to Texas. But his roots remain here. He'll have friends and family at the game; he says he only gave out about 10 tickets and that only his dad, Nathaniel, has a "green light'' to get more. ("I might have to back him down to 'yellow light,' Dak laughed.) And yes, he has spent a little time this week thinking about what it all means. ... especially to other little football kids growing up in Louisiana.

The inspiration, he said, is for those kids to know that he is, "Just a small-town guy who has worked his ass off and ended up making it to the Superdome."